In his essay “Jenseits des Lustprinzips” [“Beyond the Pleasure Principle”, 1920] Freud revises the general presumption of his early theory that humans are motivated by the desire to minimise unpleasure and maximise pleasure. He now suggests that the pursuit of pleasure often involves unpleasurable aspects which are integral to the achievement of an eventual bliss. Examples here would be long-distance running and other extreme sports, or the pain of romantic love. The earlier concept of

[life drive] is now seen to exist in an antithesis with

[death drive]. Freud’s followers will sometimes term this opposition in Greek terms as

opposed by

, although the latter term is not used by Freud.

English literature offers a highly charged poetic

512 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "The Death Drive [Todestriebe]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=297, accessed 23 November 2024.]